August 2019 Summaries

At Outbrain, a content and product discovery feed company, Yaniv Nava, a senior online acquisition manager, leveraged Zapier's automation tool to streamline lead management processes, enabling his team to reach out to leads quickly. Initially focusing on managing lead creation, Yaniv built automated workflows, or Zaps, that integrated with Salesforce and other platforms. As the usage of Zapier spread across the company, security became a priority, particularly with SAML authentication for multiple employees using the platform. Outbrain now utilizes Zapier's Company plan, providing shared folders and enhanced security, to manage leads, customer relationships, and other business processes efficiently.

You can track customer feedback and concerns on social media and respond promptly, but this only scratches the surface of social listening. Social listening tools monitor not just brand names but also marketing campaigns, products, niche industries, CEOs, and relevant keywords across various platforms, including news outlets and forums. This helps improve customer service by quickly addressing complaints and questions, preventing social media crises by identifying potential issues before they escalate, generating ideas for new products and services by analyzing industry trends and competitor feedback, finding new customers or clients through lead generation and social selling, identifying influencers who want to promote the brand, performing competitive analysis by measuring market share and engagement levels, and ultimately engaging with the audience based on the insights provided by the tool. By leveraging these capabilities, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their online presence and make data-driven decisions to improve their overall performance.

A content management system (CMS) is a web-based software that allows users to build and manage content on their websites. The best CMS for a website depends on its purpose, size, and user's skill level. WordPress.org is the most popular and user-friendly CMS, ideal for small to medium-sized websites, while Drupal is better suited for high-traffic websites. Ghost is perfect for bloggers, ButterCMS offers a headless CMS solution, Grav is a lightweight flat-file CMS, Webflow is a website builder with an integrated CMS platform, Squarespace allows users to build and manage websites quickly, PageKit has a modular design, Textpattern provides flexibility and customization options. Ultimately, the right CMS depends on the user's needs and skill level, and automation can be achieved through integrations with Zapier or other services.

Google offers a suite of cloud-based apps, including G Suite for Education, that can help K-12 teachers automate some of their less engaging responsibilities and save time. Google Forms can be used to automatically grade tests and quizzes, while Google Sheets can calculate grades and gather important insights. Google Docs can help with grading papers more efficiently, suggesting copy edits, leaving comments, and reviewing previous drafts. Google Slides makes it easier to build presentations quickly using predesigned templates or the Explore function. Additionally, Zapier's automations for Google apps can further streamline tasks such as sending emails after quiz submissions or automatically copying files to school storage. By leveraging these tools, teachers can free up more time to focus on teaching and mentoring their students.

perfect is the enemy of good. Done is better than perfect. The best is the enemy of the good. In product development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can be used to release a product that consists of the smallest number of features possible to provide value to users. Releasing an MVP allows you to get feedback earlier and start profiting from the product sooner. However, there are scenarios where perfect is needed, such as when building a new product for a new company or in competitive markets. In these cases, MVPs can sometimes do more harm than good. It's essential to consider the implications of imperfection on the end-user and weigh the pros and cons before deciding whether to pursue an MVP approach. The concept of perfect versus good applies to various areas of work, including writing, leadership, and applying for jobs. Ultimately, blanket rules don't apply, and it's crucial to think about the specifics of the task at hand before making decisions about perfection.

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support software that offers multiple support channels, an intuitive inbox with robust filtering options, and a customer portal for self-service articles. The platform allows users to create service level agreements (SLAs) to standardize agent performance and customize the look and feel of the portal. Additionally, it provides features such as knowledge base management, automated ticket creation, and customizable dashboards to help teams stay organized and provide excellent customer support. With its user-friendly interface and various integrations with other apps through Zapier, Freshdesk is suitable for businesses looking to improve their support operations.